Chapter 9: Backing Up Your Files with the Backup Utility
What Is the Removable Storage Service? Windows XP, as with Windows 2000, includes Removable Storage, a service that can keep track of your tapes or other large-scale removable storage (but we refer to all storage media as tapes in this section, for brevity). Removable Storage doesn't manage floppy disks or CD-ROMs, despite the name; however, it can label your tapes and keep track of which one you need to insert and when. It also works with the Backup Utility and other backup or storage programs that use removable media.
Removable Storage refers to a backup device (such as a tape drive) and its backup media (such as the tapes that work with the drive) as a library. A library can be robotic (with an automated media changer, like the fifty-CD changer you can get for your music CDs) or stand-alone (manuallyoperated). Only Windows servers usually have robotic backup devices. Removable Storage organizes them in a library into these media pools:
- Import media pool Media that have not yet been catalogued and labeled by Removable Storage. Before you can use them for backup, Removable Storage can import them into the Free media pool.
- Free media pool Unused, available media. When an application (like Backup) is done with a tape, it can return it to the free media pool.
- Backup media pool Media that have been reserved for use by the Backup Utility. When you use the Backup Utility to back up onto a new tape, Removable Storage moves the tape into the Backup media pool.
Before you can back up information onto tapes, the Removable Storage system catalogues your unused tapes and moves them to the Backup media pool. You can tell Removable storage to do this automatically when you back up onto a new tape. You can also turn the service on or off, and control which users can perform backups and restores.
